I can find fish sticks all over the place and it doesn't matter to me if they are flaked and formed or solid fish. What I CANNOT find is the thin breading I grew up on. It was crispy not gooey with oil. There was a lot of fish you could see when you bit into one. I misssssssssssssssss them!

I don't know how many people I have known who are pasta experts because they can pronounce "al dente" and then tell you what it means in English. Everyone is in such a hurry to be gourmet correct that they CONTINUOUSLY undertook all pasta they serve.

There are three degrees of done-ness recognized by most chefs.

1- al dente, "too the tooth" barley done
2- firm
3- soft

I will guess that 80% of the fine restaurants I have dined cook pasta firm because they would lose nearly all their clientele in Los Angels or Naples if they served it "too the tooth". Some Italian interpretations of "Al dente" means you have to have teeth to eat it. Old people can't gum it. Somehow this craziness persists... you are getting the finest pasta dishes made with firm pasta, not pasta that you are required to have teeth to eat it.

Exasperated home chef

camper

I live in small town of 5000 in Southern Utah. Big enough to have two Western Family contracted markets. We are lucky to have "anything" ethnic on the counter. Dynasty is all there is and is the reason I started making my own. BTW the nearest BIG CIty is a one hour drive to Page Az

So now that I have been informed I just bought three jars Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce from an on-line store. Should be here Monday and I'll report my taste opinion

Thanks for the help everyone

# 4 tablespoons soy sauce
# 1 tablespoon peanut butter or 1 tablespoon black bean paste
# 1 tablespoon honey or 1 tablespoon molasses or 1 tablespoon brown sugar
# 2 teaspoons white vinegar
# 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
# 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
# 2 teaspoons sesame oil
# 20 drops chinese hot sauce (or habenero or jalapenos)
# 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

I know how to make it and love what I make but it is a pain.So many ingredients and worst of all peanut butter that wont emulsify no matter how hard I shake it!!!!

Would love to have a good hoison sauce out of a jar but the Dyanasty stuff I got was pretty bad when I tried it.

Your suggestions for over the counter or internet bought?

In remembrance of the best domestic cook I have ever known, Mickey.

Her Thanksgiving dinners were always perfect. Perfect turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, home made cranberry sauce, and burnt rolls LOL. But the main thing I remember is her teaching me how to make gravy. Her gravy was always rich and dark and, as pop often said, “the gravy makes the meal”.

I learned to make her gravy by running back into the kitchen and watching and asking questions as she prepared. So here is her gravy recipe as best I can remember.

Put carrots and/or onions in the bottom of the turkey roasting pan. They will caramelize and add a rich darkness to the drippings which will color the gravy later.

After removing the turkey from the oven you will let it stand anyway right? So let your drippings stand too… let them cool down. You can’t make Mickey gravy in hot grease! Once the drippings cool mix in some flower and some water or broth or whatever. By letting the drippings cool the flower will mix in easily. It will not lump! I don’t know how many times I have heard, “my gravy is lumpy”. With near 100% certainty it is because, as Mickey said, “if it’s too hot it makes a bunch of mini-dumplings”.. or maybe that was Emirel on TV. Another way to do it is to mix a slurry of water and flour in a bowl and add that as you need to.

Anyway she just added flour or slurry mixing it slowly. She told me once she sometimes “cheated” if the gravy wasn’t dark enough by using a few drops of “Kitchen Bouquet”. hahahaha

Anyway I have been using Mickey’s recipe all my life. I have almost never had less than a, “great gravy” response from guests. Liz’s kids will be here for thanksgiving dinner and Mickey will have made the gravy in a way.

<aside>

Cornstarch can be used in place of flour as it will emulsify much easier in hot drippings than will flower but has these problems:

It looks like corn starch gravy (glassy sheen)

It tasks like corn starch gravy (I can tell the difference)

If it gets too hot or cooks too long it will come apart.

</aside>

Ok.. time to gloat. Forgive me in advance but I live in southern Utah and have twenty or so pinons on my property. Had a very wet year and all of them are pregnant with lil cones right now. I expect to gather 10 or 15 gallons.
My favorite pine nut recipe follows:
Butter in a pan melted
add chopped onion
do the onion cooking thing
mix in raw rice and chicken broth
do the rice cooking thing

in separate "dry" pan add pint nuts over medium fire
keep moving them around... under no circumstances stop
They will begin to sweat a little oil and smell a little like popcorn
watch real close until they brown.. do not burn!
set aside

when rice is done mix in pine nuts and some melted butter and serve hot with your fav shrimp dish

I would if I was serving dinner to my vegan friends.

I learned something reading this post even though I don't like sushi. I learned sushi is plural. I'd have never guessed. Maybe in conversation sometime I wont say, "the sushi here is supposed to be good".

All interesting and enlightening... thanks.
I don't think I would ever use corn starch for a gravy. It makes it look funny and doesn't have the same taste. And besides I don't need the instant emulsifying utility of corn starch since I think I have become good at mixing flower into whatever without it lumping. I remember watching Emril say, "let your drippings cool before adding flour otherwise you gonna make a bunch of lil dumplins".
So I always use flower.
I think my guest wasn't really talking about frying.. maybe like me she just mixes it and cooks it until bubbly and the raw flour taste has subsided and then slowly adds back the broth, grease, or milk. She just called it frying. I think frying is what is explained above.
As far as color, I never browned the flour to make color. When roasting I usually put a cut up onion and carrot in the bottom of the pan and they caramelize. It makes the chicken drippings naturally brown. My roast chicken gravy is always a little brown... even with milk gravy.

Hello all. I had guests for a dinner of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy... simple fair.
One guest complimented the gravy and asked if I used corn starch. Does anyone use corn starch to make gravy? weird...but what do I know. We talked at some length about gravy making and he told me his mother "fried" the flour in the left over chicken grease.

Has anyone ever fried your gravy? what advantage does it hold?

Me I just let the roast chicken drippings cool down some, blend in some flour with a whisk, get the mixture a little hot and slowly blend in milk. Maybe that is fried? What am I missing here?

I love good coffee... I really dislike any coffee other than black... nothing in it except coffee.
But this does remind me of the 60s on the graveyard shift factory I worked in. They had a coffee machine that dispensed cocoa and chicken soup too. I became somewhat addicted to the coffee machine instant I guess. So that even today I prefer instant when I am working in my shop. It is so different that is just... well... so different!
Cant handle it for breakfast though

I'm not sure what "rules" mean but I was raised in East LA in the 50s and there were almost zero flour tortillas at home or in restaurants. Everything was corn in various diameters and thickness and degree of cooking.

Just some nomenclature to consider:

A "taco" was a corn tortilla with anything at all you wanted to put into it and was folded up and eaten out of hand.
A "burrito" (little burro) was the same as a taco except for the way it was folded... just like the flour burritos today except it was corn and the top was left open and we kids could make one and go back out an play on the run. Nothing dripped out of it. You ate it from the open top down.

Mexican food has changed substantially in the last half century

Camp

This post is for so many who try to define Mexican food and cant.
That is because no one can. You cant define Mexican food just like you cant define American food. New England boiled dinner? Kansas city BBQ? New Orleans jambalaya?

But I can tell you how I was raised and what we ate and then I'll tell you what I would like to call it.

I was raised in East Los Angles in the 1950s.
We ate pot beans more often than bean paste (often called refried) and use real lard for all frying.
We roasted peppers on the gas range.
We never had a flour tortilla but we had burritos (little burro) made with a corn tortilla.
If you put stuff in a small corn tortilla and just brought the ends together it was a taco.
If you use a bigger corn tortilla and wrap it up burrito fashion you have a burrito.
Still no flour tortillas.
We never smothered things in cheese and even when we went out to dinner on Brooklyn ave there was no such thing as a combination plate.
Nobody stuck a good dish under a broiler just to melt the cheese.
We had many kinds of homemade soups and lots or rice dishes.
Cheese enchiladas almost exclusively.
Enchilada sauces were not good with meats so just cheese
Meat was eaten in small portions or in stews and chicken was cooked most often with pork right behind it.
Carnitas is still my favorite.
We made our own tamales sometimes but could buy them on the corner any time we wanted them.
Same thing goes for corn tortillas.
A bottle of hot sauce or two were always on the table.
We used a lot of chilies and grew our own right along with the tomatoes and carrots.
There was always a bowl of fresh salsa on the table and each person used it as they liked... sort of like the way salt and pepper shakers are used.
Seafood was on the table often... shrimp and small perch and bass and the like and muscles which we took off the pier pilings in San Pedro.
We made and ate ceviche quite often.

But anyway, as you can see the cuisine is pretty basic but it was good.

I call this Sonoron Mexican food because I guess 90% of the East LA Mexcian population were from Sonora (or baja) or their parents were.

I don't know what to call the Anglo Mexican dishes you get in most restaurants today.When one advertises "Sonoran style" I know the menu will be mostly anglo designed dishes.

But I do know what I grew up with I can find it the small restaurants in Mexican neighborhoods.

That's all I wanted to say.